So Many Training Websites

Ok so I have been trying to work on some more motivation this year for myself and my girlfriend. I don't think I will be racing much this year but I may try and do an 8 hour race or something like that depending on work and the schedule of things.

There are so many different sites out there to track progress and log rides on; I am interested in which is your favorite one to use and why?? Also is there a good one to consolidate all training and motivation onto?

The following is what I am doing as well as what I have done. it seams to me I use features of all of them and none of them really offers everything I am looking for.

Training peaks In the past I have used training peaks (free version) to track some basic nutrition, I was having trouble loosing too much weight while training for endurance events and that just gave me a good overall view of calorie intake.

Garmin Connect and Strava Last year I picked up a Garmin so I was using Garmin connect and strava (free version) just to see how I stack up to some other people as well as I was hoping that I could find some new routes with those sites but not so much. I can now use Garmin Connect to compare the same loop from one month to the next which I like. Strava is just an ego thing I never really try for KOM's too hard except for one long climb that I am sure to get back this summer. But the more I use it it is nice to see improvements or differences between the end of last season and the beginning of this season.

Training Journal I have also done the tried and true hand written journal and then tracking weekly races and other events on a spreadsheet. This I think was the best thing I have ever done because I could directly see my improvements on one sheet and I could look back on the previous year and compare it that way too even though courses and conditions change I could still see a trend which really motivated me.

If strava is just an ego thing then just keep all your rides private and your ego will be protected. Strava will easily allow you to compare times in rides from year to year month to month or day to day a lot easier then a paper book, or an excel spredsheet. Strava is by far the most useful training journal I have ever had. Training peaks is too complicated and seems to be getting more and more powermeter dependent. I wish strava would create a calendar page where you can plan workouts and enter your races for the season. Seems so old school to pull the calendar off the wall to see if there are any races I want to do in sep.

Garmin connect for me. I havent tried strava yet. I probably should. One of the training plans I was thinking about getting requires at least the free version of training peaks. I would prefer the pdf version, like most other coaches seem to offer though.

So Many Training Websites

If you have a Garmin Edge it's always a good idea to keep the original .fit ride files stored on your computer. That way you can upload them again elsewhere in future if needed.

Along with the various websites you might want to give Golden Cheetah a try. It's free and gives you more ride detail than you typically get from a website. It has the advantage that your files are stored locally and you don't have to pay a subscription to access premium features.

Strava is ok. I prefer Strava to Garmin Connect. The free version of Strava still has some good features and it's easy to use. You can set Strava to private so that only you can view your rides. If you decide to have the rides set as public it's worth using the option to hide the GPS track at the start and end of your rides. Even so, don't use your real name as your Strava user name either. Because it's public you never know who's looking at it. Thieves use Strava as a way of identifying the locations of nice bikes to steal.

The good thing about Endomondo is that along with cycling data you can link it to other devices and websites too (withings wifi scales, Fitbit activity tracker, My Fitness Pal etc) which is useful if you want to aggregate your daily information together in one place.

Its primary focus is on diet and weight loss, rather than training specifically. It's good though because it's free, you can keep a detailed food diary and it connects to various other devices and websites. The smartphone app has a built in barcode scanner for quickly adding foods which works quite well.

I also have a set of Withings WS-30 wifi scales linked so that my weight each morning is automatically uploaded to the My Fitness Pal website. By linking the accounts you can have websites such as Endomondo send your daily activity across to My Fitness Pal too.